Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

“Jesus wishes to establish in the world, devotion to My Immaculate Heart.” (Virgin Mary at Fatima)

MARY & JOSEPH RAISED JESUS JUST AS ALL GOOD PARENTS DO, AND OFTEN EXPERIENCED THE SAME HEARTACHES FROM WORRY AND ANXIETY ABOUT HIS PROTECTION AND SAFETY.

Let us listen to this story as told by St. Luke about how they “lost” their Son for three days:

“Each year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover,
and when he was twelve years old,
they went up according to festival custom.
After they had completed its days, as they were returning,
the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem,
but his parents did not know it.
Thinking that he was in the caravan,
they journeyed for a day
and looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances,
but not finding him,
they returned to Jerusalem to look for him.
After three days they found him in the temple,
sitting in the midst of the teachers,
listening to them and asking them questions,
and all who heard him were astounded
at his understanding and his answers.
When his parents saw him,
they were astonished,
and his mother said to him,
“Son, why have you done this to us?
Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.”
And he said to them,
“Why were you looking for me?
Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”
But they did not understand what he said to them.
He went down with them and came to Nazareth,
and was obedient to them;
and his mother kept all these things in her heart.

GOSPEL LK 2:41-51

“…and his mother kept all these things in her HEART.” Lk. 2:51

MARY’S IMMACULATE HEART

During the Fatima Apparitions of 1917, when Mary appeared to the three children–now Ven. Lucia, St. Jacinto and St. Francisco, she told them that “Jesus wished to establish in the world devotion to her Immaculate Heart.” She later conveyed to Ven. Lucia her wish that the First Saturday of the month be devoted to her Immaculate Heart.

Already, some years earlier, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque received from Jesus the Revelation of his Sacred Heart with the devotion of the First Fridays to be observed each month.

The Church subsequently arranged the liturgical calendar to honor the feasts of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and that of the Immaculate Heart of Mary by celebrating them together on the third Friday and Saturday of June.

In the CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, commissioned by Pope St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, we find many spirit filled tributes to Mary, Mother of Jesus, and Queen of Heaven and Earth and especially of the Church, founded by her Son.

In #971“All generations will call me blessed”: “The Church’s devotion to the Blessed Virgin is intrinsic to Christian worship.” 515 The Church rightly honors “the Blessed Virgin with special devotion. From the most ancient times the Blessed Virgin has been honored with the title of ‘Mother of God,’ to whose protection the faithful fly in all their dangers and needs … . This very special devotion … differs essentially from the adoration which is given to the incarnate Word and equally to the Father and the Holy Spirit, and greatly fosters this adoration.” 516 The liturgical feasts dedicated to the Mother of God and Marian prayer, such as the rosary, an “epitome of the whole Gospel,” express this devotion to the Virgin Mary.517

In #973: By pronouncing her “fiat” at the Annunciation and giving her consent to the Incarnation, Mary was already collaborating with the whole work her Son was to accomplish. She is mother wherever he is Savior and head of the Mystical Body.

In #974: The Most Blessed Virgin Mary, when the course of her earthly life was completed, was taken up body and soul into the glory of heaven, where she already shares in the glory of her Son’s Resurrection, anticipating the resurrection of all members of his Body.

In #975: “We believe that the Holy Mother of God, the new Eve, Mother of the Church, continues in heaven to exercise her maternal role on behalf of the members of Christ” (Paul VI, CPG § 15).

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*Initials from the Latin name of our Congregation: Congregatio Charitatis a Verbo Incarnato (Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word), used as an abbreviation for our Congregation.